Hotel/Motel Taxes

As permitted under state code, the City of Elkins charges hotel and motel operators a tax on the cost of each occupied room. As per city ordinance 180, approved September 4, 2014, the current rate charged is 6 percent. The tax is due and payable monthly, on or before the fifteenth day of the calendar month next succeeding the month in which the tax accrued. The Treasurer’s Department sends a year’s worth of tax return forms to each hotel and motel operating inside city limits before July 1 of each year. If you have not received your return forms, please contact the staff member at the bottom of this page.

Who Must Pay This TaxThe definition of “hotel” used by Ordinance 180 is provided below:

“’Hotel’ means any facility, building or buildings, publicly or privately owned (including a facility located in a state, county or municipal park), in which the public may, for a consideration, obtain sleeping accommodations. The term shall include, but not be limited to, boarding houses, hotels, motels, inns, courts, condominiums, lodges, cabins and tourist homes. The term “hotel” shall include state, county and city parks offering accommodations as herein set forth. The term “hotel” shall not be construed to mean any hospital, sanitarium, extended care facility, nursing home or university or college housing unit, or any facility providing fewer than three rooms in private homes, not exceeding a total of ten days in a calendar year, nor any tent, trailer or camper campsites: Provided, that where a university or college housing unit provides sleeping accommodations for the general nonstudent public for a consideration, the term “hotel” shall, if otherwise applicable, apply to such accommodations for the purposes of this tax.”

What This Tax Pays ForFifty percent of the revenues from this tax are appropriated to the city’s two convention and visitor’s bureaus. The balance is used for the support of city parks and recreation facilities, beautification projects, and similar uses, as stipulated by West Virginia Code §7-18-14.